Seeing strides

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anonmouse

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I'm finding it really difficult to see strides at the moment. I haven't been riding for quite a few months and after deciding I'd like to try some jumping I found I had lost the knack of seeing strides completely. It completely through me as I was either leaning forward to early or late. Any easy way of helping me to get back into it? I always found it difficult but I got used to estimating but not always completely accuratly. Find it hard to tell whether to lengthen the stride or shorten it please help!
 
If I concentrate too hard, I find I go completely wrong! Try to relax, and get into the rhythm and I'm sure it'll come flooding back. Will your horse do the jump without too much help from you? If I'm nervous I let him take over for a few small practice jumps, and then I'm back in the stride for the big class.
 
Sit on the the horse till it takes off.. Most horses will sort the stride out for themselfs until you are seeing it again, until then, sit up.
Lou x
 
do lots of canter poles .... and alot practise , there is no easy way just practise ... Count out loud when coming into a fence ... Is your horse a steady horse as in does he/she come in at a steady pace ?
 
Try putting a placing pole one stride infront of the fence (that's between 8-12 feet depending on sixe of your horse/pony), ride into fence and your horse will use the pole to automatically get right stride into fence, you should be able to fell him doing this. Work out where he likes to take off then remove pole and practise again over the fence, let the horse choose the stride himself until you're confident you can spot it then practise over other fences to see if you've got the hang of it.
 
if you count the canter strides 1,2, as you are cantering and especially on approach it that can help sometimes it helped me anyway. Good luck and keep trying
 
I have mixed views on seeing a stride but I do err towards the trail of thought that it is natural....you can either see it and you will always be able to see it regardless of the horse......or you can't and will never really be able to.

I'm really not sure whether it can be learned or not...perhaps.....if you only ride one horse. Who knows.
 
At the moment I wouldn't be altering a horses stride, I am very much of the opinion that you know far less than your horse about jumping (and I make very few exceptiosn, young horses that you are teaching, which I am guessing you are not etc) until you get to a pretty advanced level.

I used to teach, and when I did I explained how to see a stride, I would have them count down the last 3 strides (with the caveat that it is not 3,2,1, Boot so you are right), and with practice the vast majority could see a stride 3 strides out. Less could see a stride 5, 7, 9 etc away, decreasing as you get further away. Far far more important is the ability to go with the horse over a fence, too early or too late you will unbalance the horse, possibly causing a refusal if you fold and take your leg off too soon, jabbing in the mouth if you take off too late etc. Work on establishing a good solid lower leg, so you don't let it move as you fold from the hips, work on having a light contact that will slip if you are caught out so you don't catch the horse in the mouth, then work on having relaxed hips that are guided by the movement of the horse - over a jump you only need fold as much as the horse needs - over 2' you are not going to be flat on his neck but at 4'6'' you will be pretty close as he will come up to meet you on your way down.

Going back to lengthening or shortening, you should be aiming for a balanced pace, with lots of impulsion, not too slow, not too fast. If a choice needs to be made, it is governed by a number of things (which is generally why I don't like people interferring with stride) but I lean towards a shorter stride that uses technique rather than a longer stride which relys on speed to get over.
 
Tia - I had to learn how to do it, it wasn't natural for me!

My way was lots of practise with poles on the ground
smile.gif
 
Just takes a bit of practise, try counting out load as you go up to the jump,

Then once you have done that for a while count outload as before then say now when you think they will take off

thats how my intrutor taught me and trust me I was useless before I used to just count whenever then shout now when I got pretty close!!
 
I find counting out loud towards the fence makes me look like a complete moron but for some reason helps. Try not to think about it too much and concentrate on going with your horse rather than seeing strides, you'll probably find it starts to come naturally with practice
 
I'm guessing as you haven't jumped in a while that you aren't jumping big fences. In which case just try to sit there, let your horse sort it out (he's probably smarter than all of us put together) and get a feel for it. I know if you feel nervous it really easy to interfere but try really hard not to do anything and you will get used to it. keep it small though.
 
My instructor puts a canter pole about 3 strides before the fence, she gets me to look at the pole and stride up to that, then the strides to the fence should come naturally if you get the strides to the pole correct. She sort of draws a circle infont of the canter pole and I have to aim to get his feet in it.

Then count the strides inbetween the pole and the jump (which should be a nice simple small cross to start with). Then we kept the pole and moved on to doubles and bounces. Really helped me and Baron improve.

Oh and to add, he never sorted his own strides out, 9 times out of 10 he would take off to close or too far away. Hes got it perfect now and the poles really helped build his conficence.
 
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